NORTH MUSKEGON, MI — Chris Carter knows what it's like to come close to victory, only to fall one game short.

Having played in the annual Henderson Memorial Match Play Tournament since the late 1990s, Carter has finished in second place three times during that span.

Jumping at the chance for this year's tourney held at Lincoln Golf Club, Carter, who is a golf coach at Reeths-Puffer High School, made it through the second day and into the semifinals.

"Three times I've made it to the finals; I've been so close," Carter said. "We're going to work on that this weekend."

One person that might stand in his way is last year's tournament champion, Ryan Mouw. Last year, Carter was eliminated in the early morning Saturday match of the three-day tournament. Now he will be taking on Mouw in the final day with four players left in the championship flight.

The two have had good matches against one another in the past, with Carter having known Mouw for 20 years now.

"It's a whole weekend of grind, you try to keep playing good golf and finish those matches that benefit you," Carter said. "Then you got to restart yourself and get ready for the next match. You can't carry anything over."

Taking part in the semifinals opposite the two are Collin Breit, who defeated Scott Schultema 2-up in match play, and Casey Farwig, who played the entire 18 holes with Jeff Galbreath, finishing with one more hole won.

Carter said he will have to be more focused based on the type of competition that will be on display Sunday morning.

"The competition is at the top. I can almost guarantee that you got to be 3 or 4 under par tomorrow to have a chance to win," Carter said. "Obviously, you've got Ryan (Mouw), you've got Collin (Breit) who was the lowest scorer for the qualifying round, and Casey (Farwig) and I have been good friends for a long time."

As coach of the Reeths-Puffer girls varsity team, Carter is not the only one representing the Rockets.

His senior No. 1 player will play in the finals of the Girls 15-17 final against her younger sister, who is going into the eighth grade.

Out of the 102 players that took part in the tournament, 38 of them were junior golfers.

Colby Beckstrom, the head golf professional at Lincoln Golf Club, was pleased by the turnout from the junior program at this year's tournament having only seen 14 from last year.

"The highlight for us was to try to grow the junior aspect," Beckstrom said. "Back when I was a kid, this was the biggest tournament of the year. All of the kids got excited for the Henderson. Somewhere along the way we sort of lost that feel."

Things changed as Beckstrom and a few others reached out to the high school coaches around the area and were able to pull in some of the best junior golfers to play against one another.

Carter, who was watching his No. 1 player for Reeths-Puffer play when he was done for the day, said he hopes the Rockets will have at least two champions by Sunday evening.

"I'm looking forward to getting up tomorrow morning and swinging a few sticks with Ryan Mouw," he said.